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UPS will expand its Amazon Key-like delivery service into 10 new cities

Submitted by Kenneth Kwok on Tue, 01/22/2019 - 07:22

From The Verge: UPS is expanding its partnership with smart lock startup Latch with availability in 10 more cities. Similar to Amazon Key, the Latch service lets drivers make deliveries in apartment buildings for residents who aren’t home, but it stops short of letting them through your front door.

By the middle of the year, Latch will arrive in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, and Seattle. Latch is currently operating in New York and San Francisco.

Latch works by letting residents and building staff use its mobile app, a code, or a keycard to enter the building. Each of its locks has a built-in wide-angle camera to record any interactions from non-residents, and the footage can be viewed through the app.

The new expansion proves that Latch’s initial launch in New York last year wasn’t just a city-bound exclusive and that the service might end up competing with Amazon Key. “Nationwide growth has always been the plan,” Luke Schoenfelder, CEO and founder of Latch, tells The Verge.